Mainframe Engineering Manager

Overview

The Mainframe Engineering Manager leads the engineering, automation, reliability, security, and modernization of the enterprise mainframe platform. This role is responsible for managing a team of mainframe engineers, systems programmers, and platform specialists supporting IBM Z infrastructure that hosts critical business applications and data.

The manager drives platform stability, operational excellence, security compliance, automation, capacity planning, and modernization initiatives while integrating mainframe services into enterprise cloud, Dev Ops, AIOps, and infrastructure engineering strategies. This leader partners closely with application development, cybersecurity, architecture, cloud engineering, vendors, and business stakeholders to ensure the mainframe remains a secure, resilient, and cost-effective strategic platform.

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Lead and develop a team of Mainframe Systems Engineers, Systems Programmers, and Technical Specialists.
• Define and execute the strategic roadmap for IBM Z infrastructure and related platform services.
• Drive workforce planning, talent development, succession planning, and skills transformation.
• Establish operational excellence metrics and service level objectives (SLOs).
• Manage budgets, vendor relationships, software licensing, and third-party service providers.
• Communicate platform strategy, risks, and opportunities to executive leadership.
• Implement Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and Platform Engineering principles.
• Drive operational efficiency through automation and self-service capabilities.
• Lead modernization initiatives integrating mainframe workloads with:
  • Hybrid cloud platforms
  • API ecosystems
  • Enterprise integration platforms
  • Containerized environments
• Support Dev Ops and CI/CD practices across distributed and mainframe environments.
• Champion Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and platform automation.
• Evaluate emerging technologies including AIOps, observability, and AI-enabled operations.
• Oversee disaster recovery and business continuity strategies.
• Ensure compliance with RTO and RPO objectives.
• Lead high-availability architecture planning.
• Manage capacity, performance tuning, and workload optimization.
• Conduct root cause analysis for major incidents.

Minimum Required

Education and Experience:

Bachelor's Degree and 8 years' experience OR High School Diploma or GED/Equivalent and 12 years' experience in Applications development, analysis or engineering

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• 10+ years of IBM Z infrastructure experience.
• 5+ years of people leadership experience.
• Experience leading large-scale modernization initiatives.
• Experience integrating mainframe environments with cloud platforms.

• GDPS and high availability solutions
• Parallel Sysplex architecture
• Metro/Global Mirror
• Encryption technologies
• Cyber resilience and recovery practices
• Automation & Dev Ops
• IBM Watson/Frontier AI
• Hybrid cloud integration

• IBM Certified System Programmer
• IBM Z Professional Certifications
• ITIL
• AWS/Azure Architect (preferred)
• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)

Benefits are an integral part of total rewards and First Citizens Bank is committed to providing a competitive, thoughtfully designed and quality benefits program to meet the needs of our associates. More information can be found at